Spirit Animals, Birds and Fantastical Beetles from Margaret Peot and StencilGirl

Posted on by May 13, 2021
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I am completely psyched to introduce these new ATC Mixup Stencils from @StencilGirl Products! To order a set for yourself, and see what other stencils are available, visit StencilGirl.

Spirit Animals ATC Mixup L855
This is a time to meditate and reflect: I am sure you have animals in your world that you look for and connect to. Here are some of mine: Bear, Otter, Rabbit, Wolf and more. What are some of yours? Use these images to create ATCs to share with friends, add to journal pages, or make your own Spirit Animal tarot cards.

Spirit Birds ATC Mixup L854
Birds live in that liminal zone, between the earth and the sky. Whether we live in the city or the country, the feathered friends we see lift our hearts. Here are some of my important birds—the Crow, Barn Owl, The fierce Swan and the mighty Hawk and more. What are some of yours? Use these images to create ATCs to share with friends, add to journal pages, or make your own Spirit Bird tarot cards.

Scarab Beetles ATC Mixup L853
Beetles are the tiniest creatures, but somehow some of the loveliest. I was sitting on a hill in Montauk, watching the day go by, and a brilliant red beetle with black spots walked out of the grasses next to me and strode on past. That gave me the inspiration for this set of fantasy beetles. Use these images to create ATCs to share with friends, add to journal pages, or make your own Scarab Beetle tarot cards.

New Stencils from @StencilGirl Products!

Posted on by April 14, 2021
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New Stencils! I am so excited about these four new stencils from @StencilGirl Products. Floral frames, a nesting duck hiding in reeds and flowers, a large floral heart, and a row of tall flowers. Sunny and perfect for spring painting projects! Check out the StencilGirl Products site for ideas of how to use them and details on how to order them for your own art projects.

Floral Stencils Set GIVEAWAY!

Posted on by April 14, 2021
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I am so thrilled with how these four new stencils from StencilGirl Products turned out, and because of that, I am offering a GIVEAWAY! Just leave a comment below or on the Facebook or Instagram posts about the giveaway by Thursday, April 22, 2021, and be entered in a drawing to win! Only one winner, and US entries only, please (and sorry about that to my friends in other countries!).

The winner will receive ALL FOUR of my new 9 x 12 stencils! For more details about the stencils themselves, and to see all the wonderful stencils there (not only mine!), go to StencilGirl Products.

So many fun things to make and do with these four new stencils from @StencilGirl Products! Check out their blog to get some ideas.

Floral Frames (L845): I printed this twice, and on the top layer, cut out the central pictures and used foil to enhance the cutouts.

Again, I printed two of the Floral Heart (L846) stencil and then cut out and foiled the top layer.

Tall Flowers! (L847)

Nesting Duck (L844)

AT NIGHT, new from Muddy Boots, available for pre-order!

Posted on by March 31, 2021
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I am so proud to announce that my new book, AT NIGHT (@MuddyBoots), publishes on October 1, 2021, and is now available to pre-order from Indiebound, Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

What animals forage by night and sleep by day? This children’s picture book describes the nocturnal lives of nine common animals: foxes, porcupines, raccoons, skunks, opossums, bobcats, owls, mice, and rabbits. Join the adult animals guiding their children through the forest during the dark of night. The book includes information on the common names of the animal’s offspring (i.e. fox: kit). Ages 0-9 years.

UNC Costume Painting Class

Posted on by March 19, 2021
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Today was my first Zoom costume painting workshop, hosted by University of North Carolina and the inimitable Rachel Pollock (of https://la-bricoleuse.blogspot.com/ fame). I think we would have had a lot more fun had we been in person together making stuff and touching all the paint samples I have, but it was still nice. Rachel was a wonderful host, and her students were great and asked good questions.

I showed a powerpoint with lots of process shots of different shows and costumes, from Aladdin to Moulin Rouge. In past slide shows, I just showed beautiful finished garments, but in this one I tried to show how we get from some Sharpie-scrawled unitard to a finished beautiful super hero unitard. One example was how Groot from Marvel Universe Live was made from the beginning to-scale drawing to the finished garment. I can’t include all the images here, but I think it would be neat to make a little movie about it. It was such a labor of love and involved a lot of collaboration:

Marvel superhero Groot of “Guardians of the Galaxy” performs in “Marvel Universe Live: Age of Heroes.”

And how to paint scales, feathers, fur, various textures. I did a demo with my little document camera. My colors that I had at home were somewhat limited–black, brown, red and a weird, watery green. So I showed some scales I painted on a real costume, like this Bette Midler mermaid detail:

And then how to paint them with my limited palette on scrap milliskin:

Painting off scale stencils onto milliskin

Showing how to make a flat fabric look rough and textural–again, with a limited palette, but a really good stencil!

 

Four Color Stencil Fun: Snapping Turtle

Posted on by March 19, 2021
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I have recently been designing stencils for StencilGirl products, and that got me interested in making four-color layered stencils. These are printed with a big watercolor brush and Kuretake paints–so satisfying to see all the color combinations. Here are four of the turtles and the stepped out stencils as well:

Ms. Seitner’s 2nd Graders and Crows!

Posted on by January 22, 2021
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Ms. Seitner’s second graders drew some magnificent crows yesterday! I wish I could show you all of them, but I got excited and forgot to screen shot every one. These second graders added lots of interesting detail in the feathers. They had read Crow Made a Friend (@HolidayHouse) the day before, and we talked about how a picture book gets made and how many steps and re-dos one has to go through to get to a finished, printed book. Lots of collaboration!

The second graders are working on “All About” books, a non-fiction unit where they do a deep dive into a subject, like rabbits, trees, Pokemon Go, and others. Two students were doing their All About books on art!

Finally, we discussed how to set up a “spread” in a non-fiction picture book. The kids folded a piece of paper in half and were invited to figure out how to organize one of their All About facts on a two page spread, keeping the “gutter,” or the hinge of the book in mind, and not putting the most important thing in the gutter. I shared with them the beginnings of the All About book I am working on (not surprisingly, it is about crows):

An unsuccessful page (too much information, text that is not so legible):

And a more successful page (clearer text and info, more dynamic spread organization):

To get a copy of Crow Made a Friend for your personal library, go to Amazon, IndieBound, or support my local bookstore in Washington Heights, WordUp Community Bookshop.

Evie’s Inkblot Bird

Posted on by January 20, 2021
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Yesterday I received the wonderful gift of an inkblot bird from a neighborhood friend. She is a young artist who just started making inkblots for the first time. Fantastic! I have hung it on the wall in my studio. So I sent her an inkblot bird in return, as a thank you. Here they are. Evie’s is mauve and mine is blue. 🙂

Here’s a link to a fun activity with inkblots: Inkblot Masks! https://www.margaretpeot.com/inkblot-masks/

(and Happy Inauguration Day, America!)

Society for Illustrators Best Children’s Book Illustration Show 2020

Posted on by January 20, 2021
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Sue and I attended the Society for Illustrators Best Children’s Books Illustration Show before the new year and I am just getting around to posting about it. But that is NOT because the illustrations I saw did not stick in my mind!

The exhibit was strange because of the pandemic: the illustrations were high quality digital reproductions instead of the real thing, and all framed uniformly by the Society for Illustrators. We had to get timed tickets to enter to avoid crowding in the venue, but we ended up being the only two people in the whole brownstone that houses the Society. Also, there were no books to look at–usually there are all the books represented in the show available to look at, and chairs to sit in while you do. We wandered and looked and talked. I took 70 photos! But these were the highlights for me–what inspired me, or stuck in my mind.

I keep thinking about the way Bryan Collier painted the shadow s of the venetian blinds on this child’s face–I love that, and also the stencil texture behind the text. Beautiful.

I love the Thing-ness of this illustration–almost like you could set it up and play in it, or make more illustrations to go with it–like a map or another photo to tape in. 🙂

This piece stuck in my mind, too–I love the monotone with one color–reminds me of Sidewalk Flowers.

This book by Peter Van Denn Ende was in the gift shop, and I looked and looked at it. Fantastic. I left that book there, and thought about it since–a wordless picture book, a wonderful, strange voyage, all in black and white. So I ordered one for myself!

Steve Jenkins is always inspiring. These frogs are in my brain forever. I love the simplicity of Steve and Robin’s science collaborations.

And finally, this piece by Sophie Blackall. How beautiful. Made me think of Persian miniature paintings. Inspiring.